Acacia’s scream brought Theron’s head around. The daemon he’d been fighting clocked him in the jaw. Theron roared and lashed out with his blade, slicing the beast across the chest. A rush of liquid sprayed over his skin, but in the chaos he didn’t know if it was his blood or the daemon’s.
He whirled around and kicked the second creature in the chest, then plunged his parazonium, the ancient Greek dagger he’d gotten from his father, deep into the unholy’s side. The beast went down with a howl, all twelve inches of the blade disappearing inside the daemon’s flesh, but Theron knew neither one was dead, just dazed and seconds from pouncing again.
He didn’t have time to finish either of them off, though. He turned to look for Acacia, only to see she’d scrambled behind the counter and was throwing books and office supplies at the third daemon, who kept advancing on her, as if that would keep him back. When that didn’t work, she jumped to her feet and yanked the fire extinguisher from the wall, pointed it at the daemon and turned it on full blast.
The daemon was temporarily blinded by the gush of white foam, but with a roar he charged again. Theron raced across the room and reached the counter just as Acacia swung the canister and nailed the daemon in the side of the head. She climbed to the top of the counter and did it again, this time using her leverage from above to nail him hard.
The beast went down. Theron drew his blade. And was kidney-punched from behind as one of the other two found its footing again.
Claws flashed, Theron whipped around, his blade slicing through flesh and air, but still the daemon came, seven feet and three hundred pounds of unending muscle. From behind him he could hear Acacia swinging the fire extinguisher at the other beast. A growl from the front of the store indicated the third was back on his feet.
Skata. They were in serious trouble.
Two he could handle easily. Three if he were by himself. But not with Acacia. And even if he could manage to figure a way out of this one and get her far enough away to concentrate and open the portal, she had to willingly go with him. Because she was human, he couldn’t force her across the threshold.
And in her current state of hysteria? Wasn’t gonna happen. Which meant they were well and truly screwed.
The daemon flipped him to the ground and lunged. Theron cracked his head against the daemon and threw the beast off him as if it weighed nothing. The daemon crashed into a shelving unit. Books rained down on top of him, but the monster scrambled to its feet and charged as if he hadn’t even felt the blow. Theron jumped to his feet as well, and in one mighty sweep his blade ripped through flesh and bone. With a sickening crack, the head was severed from the daemon’s body and rolled across the blood-soaked carpet.
A horrendous roar echoed through the store. The daemon Theron had left bloodied by the door plowed into him and took him down to the carpet. His blade flew out of his hand and clanged against the counter. Theron’s face was pressed into the carpet as claws ripped across the jacket on at his back.
Fuck. Now they were really screwed.
Then he heard a thud, and a swoosh. Felt a gush of something warm across his back and heard a mighty howl as the daemon fell off him.
Theron was on his feet in a flash, only to realize Acacia had his blade plunged deep into the daemon’s chest.
She pulled the weapon out. The daemon fell back, shook himself and seemed to regather his strength.
Theron quickly took the weapon from Acacia and pushed her behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the second daemon, covered in foam, rising slowly to his feet. “Get back!”
“Oh, shit,” she muttered.
He crouched down in his fighter’s stance, lunged toward the first and sensed the second circling around to advance on Acacia. He had microseconds to decide his next move, and then suddenly the tide shifted.
Glass shattered at the front of the store, and a man flew through the broken glass and charged the second daemon.
Weapons clashed. Jaws snapped. Metal met flesh and bone. Heads rolled, and then there was nothing but blood and severed body parts and the aftermath of a fight that ended as quickly as it had started.
Breathing heavy and having trouble seeing through what he hoped was sweat, and not his own blood, Theron straightened and studied the newcomer—human, but not totally. And an Argonaut.
Which made noooo fucking sense whatsoever.
The man turned toward Acacia, who’d somehow managed to scramble back onto the counter. “Casey, come down.”
“Oh, my God. Nick. Jesus Christ, what the hell—?”
The blond’s big hands plucked Acacia right off the counter before Theron had a chance to stop him, and he set her on her feet in the middle of the store. The man grasped her shoulders and held firm. “Take a breath, Casey. More will be coming.”
“More? What do you—?”
Then, almost as if she’d just realized the two of them weren’t alone, her eyes flashed to Theron, understanding dawning in their violet depths. And for the first time since he’d met her, he realized how similar those eyes were to the king’s.
“Those things,” she said. “I saw them that night with you. Outside XScream.”
The man she’d called Nick glanced up sharply. “You brought them here? To her?”
“No,” Theron said, shoving his weapon back into its scabbard at his back. Now he was the bad guy? Fuck that. “I was sent to protect her.”
Nick’s eyebrows lowered. “Sent? By whom?”
He hesitated, then figured if this guy knew about the daemons, he had to know about the rest of it. “King Leonidas.”
And oh, yeah, this guy definitely had some link to Argolea and didn’t like it, because his eyes flashed at the name and his jaw hardened until it was a slice of steel beneath flesh.
Acacia looked from one to the other, a little crease between her eyebrows as she tried to make sense of their conversation. “Who’s Leonidas? What were those things? And where did they go? Will someone please tell me what’s going on here?”
The hysteria was edging its way back into her voice, and Theron knew he had only seconds to get her away and through the portal before she was too far gone to cooperate. He held out his hand. “Come with me and I’ll explain it all to you.”
Nick grasped her arm before she even lifted it, and those amber eyes of his flashed black. “She stays. I know exactly what you are, Argonaut, and if you think I’m letting her go anywhere with you, you’re higher than a kite.”
Theron sensed the portal opening just outside the city limits and knew in a matter of minutes they were going to be surrounded and outnumbered again. And this time odds were good they wouldn’t get out of it so easily. Nick obviously sensed it as well, because his hand tightened around Acacia’s upper arm and urgency rushed through his words. “Do you have matches?”
Perplexed, she looked up. “In the drawer. But what for?”
Nick let go of her and marched around the counter. He yanked draws open until he drew out a large box, then flipped open the cupboard door and rummaged around, finally emerging with a metal canister of some kind. “Rip the spines off some books and throw them on the bodies.”
“Wait. Rip the what off my books? Hold on a minute.”
Theron didn’t need to ask, and he didn’t have time to clarify to Acacia. He reached for the closest display of paperbacks and began tearing pages until he had a mound of papers wadded up and covering the closest daemon. Nick did the same, then sprayed liquid over the whole mass.
Acacia’s eyes flew open. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re gonna have to pay for that. You can’t just—oooh!”
She screamed and jumped back as the body went up in flames. Nick ignited the second and the third and threw the box of matches and the bottle of alcohol into the fires. Flames licked the ground and rose to the ceiling, forming a black cloud, which was already spreading. “Let’s go.”
Theron met them at the door and stopped Nick from leaving with Acacia. “She goes nowhere without me.”
&nb
sp; In the split second of silence between them, Nick obviously knew he was out of time and options. He nodded. “So be it. But you so much as harm one hair on her head and I’ll kill you myself. The leader of the Argonauts means nothing to me and mine.”
Theron glanced at Acacia while flames roared to life behind him, oddly reminiscent of the fires of hell. “So be it.”